reflections on bearing the weight of the wait

Puzzling Together

On a lazy summer night my husband opened up a 1,000 piece puzzle. We spilled it out on the puzzle mat. All 1,000 pieces lay there before our eyes and we set to work.

Some pieces went together so easily! Distinctive marks helped us find matches and edges. We made progress fast. Then we approached a large section of turquoise. We stalled a bit. One Saturday the kids watched The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston (kids love that movie…and it’s very long). We knocked out whole sections in a nigh on compulsive frenzy.

Now, we plod through the last weeks of summer which coincide every year with our marriage anniversary. 14 years now. I felt like writing about marriage but I wrestled and wrestled finding words for such a mystery. I forced out a few first lines and they felt…well…forced. What to say about marriage?

My eyes rested on the 1,000 piece puzzle and all the blue sky that we fiddle with every day. The blue sky is the hardest part.

14 years ago we married and dumped out all the pieces of ourselves and began putting them together. Some pieces fit easily. We believe in the same God. We pull in the same direction. We complement each other. We are punctual. When we began, though, I honestly thought more parts of the puzzle would fit together easily.

Some took a little time but with a little effort, we figured it out. My love language, his love language. Sometimes we worked hard, sometimes we didn’t work so hard. At times we see how far we’ve come and smile and other times we see how far we have left to go.

Then there’s the expanse of slightly shaded blue sky pieces. The tough parts of the puzzle that we just have to fiddle with to fit. Pieces we look long and hard to match and do only to move to the next indiscriminate piece of the puzzle.

The puzzle on our table will finish…someday soon I hope. Our marriage puzzle will never finish. Some pieces will just elude us this side of heaven, those silly blue sky pieces!

But this week we celebrate 14 years and enjoy the view of the journey.